Price of immortality CH 1.

Twilight Sparkle was excited to the point of giddiness as she trotted up to the royal palace in Canterlot. The guards, familiar with the lavender unicorn’s presence, smiled slightly as they pushed open the doors and allowed her entrance.

Twilight waved back absentmindedly as she walked through and took the familiar route to the throne-room, in her mind she was still busy thinking over the letter from her teacher that had brought her here in the first place.

The letter had been mostly short and to the point which wasn’t all that uncommon for the princess as she was very busy.

But it was the proposal she had made in it that excited the unicorn the most, it was a rare occurrence that Twilight got to spend time with her teacher so when Celestia had invited her to stay at the palace and visit with her for an entire weekend there was literally no other answer but yes.
Even now as she approached the throne-room she was still excited about spending the weekend with the princess.

So it was something of a surprise when the throne-room turned out to be completely devoid of life, with nether the princess or her guards anywhere to be found.

There wasn’t much time for the unicorn to ponder over this conundrum however as one of the side doors opened and a royal maid stepped through greeting twilight warmly “Hello Miss. Sparkle it’s wonderful to see you again. I have been told to take you to the Princess’s private quarters where she will meet with you after finishing a project in the library.”

Twilight was a little confused by the request but went along without argument. Princess Celestia hadn’t invited Twilight to her room since she was a filly and she was curious why it would happen now.

However when they reached to large yet humble room the unicorn simply waited for the maid to disappear before slipping off her saddlebags and charging face first into the enchanted cloud bed on which the princess normally slept.

The unicorn nuzzled her face into the clouds with a soft sigh. She had always loved the bed as it was softer and warmer than any other type of mattress a pony could buy, It was also extremely expensive so all her dreams of owing one were pure fantasy.
The mare was snapped from her reverie however by a sweet, musical giggle “Well it’s nice to see somepony getting comfortable.”

Springing to her hooves, her face burning red, the unicorn stumbled forward stammering out apologies till the princess held up her hoof “Twilight if I didn’t want you on my bed I wouldn’t have invited you here. Now relax a little and let’s catch up.”

*** *** ***
Twilight honestly couldn’t remember feeling as relaxed and happy as she did laying on that bed recounting her studies on the magic of friendship, the going’s on in Ponyville, and even what the princess was up to in court here at Canterlot.
She felt like she could continue like this all day but suddenly the princess put a hoof on her shoulder to stop her saying “Hold on a moment Twilight, much as I would love listening to your continued studies I did invite you here for more than just a friendly chat.”

“Oh really princess I’m sorry I didn’t mean to drag this on too long but it’s just so nice to talk to you again. Anyway what was it you wished to discuss?”

Placing a hoof around her student the princess smiled gently and pulled her into a small hug “It’s fine Twilight you know I always enjoy our chats a great deal but we do have some business we must attend to.
However I think first we should get something to eat it has been a while since we started talking and you must be hungry.”

The lavender mare started to try and deny her hunger when, as if on cue, her stomach growled loud enough to bring yet another blush to her cheeks. Celestia smiled inwardly at Twilight’s nervousness, she had known her since she was a little filly and yet Twilight still worried about anything the even might embarrass the princess.
Still it was nice to know there was somepony who cared so much about her and it was those feelings of endearment she was hoping to use to get what she wanted, what she needed from the small purple unicorn.

Lifting a tiny silver bell in her magic the princess rang it twice, though Twilight heard no sound form it, and unlocked the door of her quarters. It obviously worked however as shortly after the door was unlocked it opened and several servants entered carrying trays of food and drink for the room’s occupants.

Inclining her head at servants as they bowed respectfully and left the room the princess gazed happily at the trays of food before relocking the door and turning to her student saying “I hope you don’t mind Twilight but I took the liberty of having this prepared in advance. I had a feeling that you might rush off without eating breakfast when you got my letter. But judging from the sound of your stomach it may have been longer since your last meal am I right?”

“Ehehe well… yes Princess, I was kinda having a late study night when I woke up to Spike trying to give me your letter.”

The alicorn just grinned as she imagined her protégé fast asleep at her lectern, her head lying on a heavy book. It wouldn’t have been the first time it had happened and I certainly wouldn’t be the last.
Pushing that amusing thought to the side the princess lifted the tops off of the platters of food and instructed her student to dig in as she prepared to do the same.

*** *** ***
The two ate in mostly silence and one again Twilight was reminded why the royal chefs got the jobs they did even though they had a tendency to be a bit fussy about the meals perfection. Her mind was elsewhere however as she savored the wonderful meal.
The princess had been acting oddly, it was subtle but Twilight could clearly tell something was bothering her though the unicorn hadn’t the slightest clue what it was.

Finishing her excellent meal Celestia reclined back onto her bed and looked over at the mare next to her. This was it; she would have to explain everything to Twilight.
She was extremely nervous about the situation but tried not to let it show, she didn’t want to upset her prized pupil. Sighing softly the princess swallowed her fear and turned to face the one pony, aside from her sister, she had gotten close to in a long time saying “Well Twilight after a meal as nice as that I suppose it’s high time we discuss the reason I called you here.”

Celestia’s increasing nervousness wasn’t lost on the unicorn but she reassured herself of the fact that if it was something to be really worried about the princess would have told her immediately “Ok Princess I’m really excited to hear about it.”

“As you know my faithful student there are many forces in this world that nopony can circumvent. One of these is that all living beings will eventually grow old and die. My sister and I have been around for a very long time but, though we are creatures of magic, we are still living beings so that is always… subject to change.”

If the violet unicorn’s eyes grew any larger they were in danger of falling from her skull “OH NO!! Princess please tell me you’re not dying… that just can’t happen, are you sick, do you need me to find a cure, is Princess Luna sick to oh pleases tell me you’re going to be ok!”

Wanting to allay the fears her student had the ivory mare pulled her into and embrace and gently stroked her mane “Shh don’t be frightened Twilight Luna and I are both perfectly fine. But you are right that I need your help with a matter of great importance. Just let me explain and everything will make sense.”

It took all the willpower she could muster but Twilight managed, barely, to keep from panicking. The princess wanted her calm so that’s what she could be.
Deciding not to pull from the hug she looked up into the amethyst eyes of the princess “I’m sorry for panicking so bad princess but I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you or Princess Luna.”

Beaming gratefully at the heart-felt sentiment Celestia gave the little unicorn another thank-you squeeze before letting her out of the embrace “Thank you Twilight it warms my heart to know how you care for my sister and I.” Letting her student get comfortable on the bed the princess waited till she was still before starting what she knew would be a very delicate conversation “All right now to start things off what can you tell me about a pony’s life essence Twilight?”

*** *** ***
Racking her brains it took the lavender mare a fair bit of time before she remembered that particular lesson. It had happened back when she was a young filly right after Princess Celestia had agreed to teach her magic.
Her brother had owned a pet lizard that he had given to her to look after when he joined the royal guard. She had done the best she could to take care of it but one day when she had gone feed him she found him unmoving in his cage.
The poor unicorn had panicked at the time thinking she had killed her brother’s pet. Her parents simply told her it had died of old age but the young filly wanted to understand why it had happened she had gone to the only pony she could think of who might have insight, her teacher.

“You told me that life essence was the energy that surrounds a being’s spirit. If I remember correctly it drains when somepony is active and it replenishes when they sleep or rest. But the energy also dissipates naturally as ponies age and when it is completely gone they die right?”

Celestia nodded and wrapped a wing around her pupil; she still remembered how scared Twilight had been when she came to her with questions. Seeing that her protégé still looked confused the solar goddess elaborated “Well like you said Twilight a pony’s life essence well shrinks as they grow older and well my sister and I have been around a while as it were.”

“But princess you said you were fine! Now you’re telling me your life essence is running out, that’s not fine princess you can’t die you just can’t!”

Not wanting her faithful student to panic the white alicorn placed a hoof gently against the unicorn’s lips saying “Calm down Twilight you know if it was something that serious I would have told you when we first started talking. It’s true that our problem stems from the draining of our life essences but even as slowly as ours drain we would have perished long ago if we hadn’t found a way around it.”

Relief flooded the young unicorn’s heart; the princess was going to be ok. She was still curious and worried about what might happen but now she could calm down a little and start asking questions “But how does that work Princess, you just said that everypony grows older and there’s no way to stop it.”

The alabaster pony smiled “It’s true that I cannot stop my life reservoir from draining but there is an innate ability that all alicorns have that is able to, in a way, reverse it.”

Twilight couldn’t believe her ears, here was a magical power that nopony but the princesses and she was about to find out about it. Settling herself attentively in front of her teacher she waited eagerly for her to speak.

Celestia smiled at how excited Twilight was about learning something new about magic. It reminded her lot of the times when the young unicorn would sit by her hoof, almost bursting with excitement. She missed those times greatly but hopefully she and Twilight would be spending more time together soon.

Getting back to the task at hoof the alicorn paused for a moment to put her thoughts in order before saying “Well you see my faithful student the ability we have lets us take a tiny little piece of another pony’s life-well and use it to refill the bit we have lost.”

“But Princess wouldn’t that shorten the other pony’s life?”

Smiling slightly at her pupil’s quick reasoning Celestia replied “Normally that would in fact be the case but there is another effect in our ability which causes meant to counteract it. You see when we take that tiny piece of life it causes the pony’s life-well to drain more slowly meaning that they would actually live longer than they normally would.”

“So you mean that taking somepony’s life essence will make them live longer… wow Princess that’s amazing! But how do you even do anything like that, is it some sort of ritual?”

The princess paused, trying to figure out the best way to explain things to her student. She didn’t want to scare the little mare but she feared that such a reaction was inevitable.
Steeling herself for the coming storm Celestia responded “Not in the strictest sense Twilight although it is something of a personal ritual between ourselves and our chosen ponies. You see in order to take that miniscule piece of life essence from a pony we first have to get at it which, as you know, is extremely dangerous.”

Nodding her head the lavender pony mentally recounted the number of horror stories she had read about unicorns experimenting with life essence accidentally killing their test subjects. A life well was a very fragile thing and if left exposed it could easily dissipate into nothingness.
“But how do you keep ponies safe when you do that to them Princess?”
Biting her lip the princess responded “Now Twilight before I explain everything you have to promise that you won’t panic. What I’m going to tell you might seem scary but I give you my word as your princess and teacher that it is completely safe.”

Twilight worried for a moment at the Princess’s word but reminded herself that this was Princess Celestia, if she said that something was safe then it was “Ok Princess I promise not to panic, cross my heart and hope to fly stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Celestia paused for a moment, arching an eyebrow at her student’s odd declaration. Making a mental note to ask about it later she finally let the royal secret come flooding out “Well to be frank my faithful student in order to expose another pony’s life well I have to devour them.”

*** *** ***
For a brief moment Twilight thought she had simply gone mad, but no she had heard the princess very clearly. Remembering her promise the unicorn managed to barely keep from running from the room in panic.

Celestia grimaced at seeing panic flood her students features but true to her word the mare didn’t bolt. Realizing this was the best opportunity she would get she continued “Please Twilight let me explain! First let me say that while I do in fact eat other ponies to survive the process isn’t painful for me and my meal. Moreover after my body finishes digesting I can say with absolute certainty the every meal I’ve ever eaten has retuned full and unharmed not an hour after I’m done with them.”

The lavender unicorn stared up at her mentor in shock, her logical mind was screaming at her that Celestia had gone crazy and was eating ponies. But on the other hoof she desperately wanted that not to be the case. Thinking for a moment she came to a decision “Prove it.”

“What?”

Twilight took a small step forward “Please Princess prove to me that you’re telling the truth. I really want to believe you but I can’t just take your word for it.”

Celestia’s brows knitted to gather in thought as she pondered a way to prove herself. After a bit of consideration a flash of inspiration struck and she smiled warmly “Ah I have an idea my faithful student if you let me cast a small spell I can prove that I speak the truth.”

Against her own better judgment the unicorn nodded and watched as her teacher’s horn surged with golden magic before she was blinded by a flash of power.

*** *** ***
Blinking to clear her eyes Twilight found herself once again found herself standing beside her mentor though something seemed odd, it looked as if the princess had no idea she was even there. Trying in vain to get her attention she nearly jumped out of her skin as a familiar voice spoke beside her “Hmm I must say the years haven’t been kind to me.”

Swiveling her head to the right the young mare found herself face to face with another Princess Celestia! Somehow through her confusion the mare managed to ask a cognizant question “Princess! What’s going on, where are we?”

The solar alicorn smiled at seeing curiosity overcoming her protégé’s earlier worry. Walking forward a bit she explained “This, my faithful student, is a memory. What you’re seeing here happened more than three hundred and fifty years ago.”

“Wow Princess this is amazing, it looks so lifelike. I had always heard that memory viewing spells were extremely difficult.”
Celestia grinned slyly “Well I won’t lie, it is a complicated spell. But it’s no trouble for a powerful mage like myself… or you.”

Twilight blushed crimson, not one to boast of her ability it still embarrassed her to have somepony she admired praise her so. But before she could comment on it or indeed try and steer the conversation back to her earlier worries she was halted by a firm knock at the princess’s door.
Lifting her head from the manuscript she was reading the past princess gazed at the ornate portal “Come in.”

Opening the large door a well-dressed unicorn stallion trotted in all smiles as he looked over the reclining monarch. He had a coat of dusty orange and mane and tail of steely grey, dressed in a long flowing cape and large hat he gave a small bow before addressing the alicorn in front of him “Hello Princess I do hope this day finds you well.”

“It does indeed Starry and how many times must I ask you to call me Tia?”

The stallion chuckled softly, a mischievous twinkly in his deep green eyes “At least one more time Princess, as always.”

Huffing in mock annoyance the Princess’s memory rolled her eyes before letting out her own small laugh “Well then please for the love of Faust call me Tia, and don’t bow ether. That aside I’ve missed you greatly since our last rendezvous.”

Starry trotted forward with a snicker and leaned up to share a nuzzle with the ivory princess saying “I missed you as well but you know what they say research waits for nopony. Much as I would love to spend all my time with you my love you know I can’t resist the thought of uncovering new spells.”

Past Celestia giggled musically “One would almost think you were simply trying to upstage me by learning more magic than I know.”

Pressing a hoof to his chest the stallion swooned dramatically “My sweet princess you wound me! How could you possibly think that I would try and outshine somepony as radiant as you?”

“Oh stop being such a drama queen Starry, now come here and give your princess a kiss.”

Twilight nearly had a heart attack at hearing the princess talk like that. Her situation was only made worse when the stallion did just that, shifting his cloak off and pulling himself up on the bed to begin hungrily kissing the memory monarch.

Celestia blushed lightly at the sight of her past self making-out with her former lover. Few ponies had ever seen her like this and while it naturally didn’t bother her the young mare beside her seemed to be faring less well.
Not wanting to scar the poor dear she gently laid a hoof on her lavender flanks “Twilight I apologize but this memory will get rather… intimate. If you want we could move forward till after this particular stallion is locked away inside me.”

Glancing over the two ponies in front of her as they became more… enamored with each other Twilight felt torn.
Strictly speaking she was only in her teacher’s memory so she could have proof that the princess was telling the truth, that being said there was a part of her, one she often tried to ignore, made her want to see the Princess like this… made her want to see somepony she cared about be happy, or be the one to make her happy.

The mare took a moment before turning back to white pony to her right saying “If it’s ok with you Princess I- I’d like to watch everything. After all you wanted to show me this in the first place so if that’s the case I should see it all right?”

Princess Celestia’s eyes widened slightly at her student’s declaration, if her words (and the subtext below them) were true than this little episode might just turn out the way she wanted after all.

As she watched the past ponies passionately practicing perfected petting (HA!) in front of her Twilight was momentarily startled to feel the princess press up against her. Blushing like a foal she turned back to the ponies as they started to get much… closer.

She wondered later if the princess would let her see the memory again sometime… so she could take notes.

*** *** ***
Sitting close to the princess Twilight blushingly looked over the scene before her. The Princess’s memory lay reclined on her side, her forehooves idly rubbing over the heavy round bulge that used to be a pony.

Like Celestia had said the entire experience had been extremely intimate though she still wasn’t exactly sure how she felt about it. Part of her was still flush with excitement after watching that little episode but on the other hoof it was very strange and more than a little scary.

Before she could put too much thought into the matter the echo of Celestia in front of her lifted her head as her magic sprang to life. The door to the chamber glowed gold for a moment before a soft but very solid sounding clunk was heard.

Sighing with slight frustration Celestia turned her head form the door to what appeared to be a blank wall and spoke with the resignation of somepony who knew a confrontation was coming “Well now that there’s nowhere for you to go you might as well come out Silver Spear.”

In front of the camber wall a pony appeared seemingly from nowhere, a member of the royal guard if her armor was any indication. She was doing her level-best to stare down the relaxing alicorn but the effect was ruined by the noticeable quiver in her legs “P-princess how… how did you?”

Celestia let out a tiny musical laugh “My dear Silver Spear did you honestly think there was a shadow that the sun itself could not penetrate? I knew you had been watching the whole time.”

“W-well it doesn’t matter because… because… um I’ll tell the rest of the guard what happened here. You won’t get away with what you did to my brother!”

The princess blushed a little but smiled warmly and caressed the dome of her belly “I suppose that would be fair but before you do there’s much about this you don’t understand. First however I am curious why you came here anyway.”

The gray unicorn shuffled on her hooves “Well I had noticed that you and my brother had been spending a lot of time together and at first I didn’t think anything of it, I mean he is the court arch-mage. But after a while I started to think there was more going on but every time I tried to ask him about it he wouldn’t tell me anything. So when I found out he was coming to see you I snuck in here, I figured that you two were intimate with each other but I never expected you to… to eat him afterward, I-I mean he didn’t even try and get away!”

“Well my little pony don’t you think that if he thought he was in danger a unicorn as powerful as your brother would have done something… well something other than give me a, *ehem*, pearl necklace?”

Sliver blushed red at hearing her princess talk in such a manner. Though she knew the solar alicorn wasn’t innocent, especially after what she saw, it still was something she wasn’t used to.
Thinking it over she took a tentative step forward followed by another as the princess encouraged her “But I just saw you eat him princess. You’re telling me he’s still ok?”

Giving the nervous unicorn a gentle smile the princess urged her forward till the blond mane’d mare pressed a shaking hoof on her belly. Rubbing a hoof over the dome herself the Princess said “He’s perfectly safe my dear, though if I were to let him out like he is you probably wouldn’t recognize him.”

Pressing her hooves over the soft swell of alabaster skin the mare gazed up in her princess smiling face and seemed to relax “Ok Princess I believe you but please I don’t understand why he would want to do something like this anyway.”

“Fair enough my little pony comes here and I’ll do my best to answer all your questions. Or maybe you’d like to hear the facts from your brother.”

Before Sliver could even respond the Princesses horn flared with magic once again and a large golden sphere appeared in front of her. The mare gasped as the dome she had been rubbing on suddenly vanished and the floating orb took on a brighter sheen.
After a moment the sphere burst in a flash of light and a whole, if slightly confused, stallion sat before the assembled ponies
“Tia you said I could stay in there longer and… S-silvi... what are you doing here!”

“B-brother you’re ok! Now how about you explain what the buck is going on here!”

As Twilight giggled at the awkward scene before her it took her a moment to realize the princess beside her was saying something “What?”

“I was saying that we should go now twilight.”

The unicorn blushed and nodded as the princess used her magic to bring them back to the present

*** *** ***
Blinking a bit twilight found herself as she had been before, standing in front of her teacher.
As she stared down at the mare in front of her Celestia had several thoughts racing through her mind. Despite her worry however she decided to try and see what was running through her student’s head “Well Twilight do you deliver me now?”

Thinking for a moment the lavender unicorn smiled “I do Princess… and I’m sorry I ever doubted you. It’s just that there’s a lot to take in and I still have some questions if that’s ok.”

“That’s more than fair my faithful student and you don’t need to apologize it was my fault this was so rushed. I should have taken it more slowly and taken time to explain everything but… I was eager to get your assistance.”

Twilight blushed a little but smiled and walked over to the bed “Well first off princess I was wondering…if uh…”
After a moment the alicorn realized what her pupil was asking “Oh of course. Come here Twilight sit with me, I suppose there’s no reason we can’t be close to each other after all that just happened so feel free to ask away.”

Lifting herself up next to the princess started her questioning “Princess I need to ask you, who was that stallion? I could swear I recognized him but I just couldn’t place where.”

To her surprise the Princess giggled softly saying “You should recognize him Twilight you did go as him during last nightmare night.”

“Wait... if that’s the case then it means that was Starswirl… but how could that be I pretty sure I didn’t see his…”

“Beard? Would you believe me my student if I told you he never had one, not a real one at least? The whole thing was nothing more than a spell he made, one you seem to have copied if I remember correctly. He created it after having some of the other high mages made fun of him for looking so young. Personally I’m glad it wasn’t real, facial hair always goes down so rough.”

Poor Twilights mind nearly blew a fuse, she had researched for days and worked her flanks off to get her Starswirl costume just right and now she finds out she had it all wrong form the start! Setting that aside for a moment to keep herself focused she continued her questioning “As interesting as that is Princess I still don’t know why you told me this at all, not that I didn’t enjoy what we saw together” she paused for a moment to blush crimson “But I’m not sure what you want form me.”

Here it was, the million bit question. From here everything would either work out fine of go up in smoke “Twilight I… I also enjoyed how, er, close we became in that memory but if you want the truth you should ask yourself why I would want you specifically to learn about this.”

“Well since you put it that way… the only reason I can fathom would be… Princess are you saying you want to eat me!”

Celestia winced as her protégé’s ears pull back in fear “Yes Twilight I was hoping you would be my meal because I could think of nopony I would rather have in such an intimate position. I wasn’t expecting you the come to a decision quickly but I beg that you at least think it over!”

Twilight’s heart bled at seeing her mentor so… frightened. She hadn’t meant to react so strongly but she was still unsure if it was something she would be willing to do. Then again it wasn’t just anypony asking her and in the end that made the decision for her “Ok Princess I… I’ll let you… eat me. But I need some time to be ready for that.”

“Of course Twilight I didn’t mean I was just going to gobble you up right here. Besides I have some… homework I have for you to do before we even get to that point.”

Confusion ran over the young unicorn’s features “What do you mean princess?”

Blushing a little the alicorn replied “Well since my meals usually like to be eaten more than one I can’t always use my ability or the affects would eventually become hazardous.
To keep this from happening a pony that was… very close to me came up with a spell that lets me devour a pony and bring them back like normal but without draining from their life-force.”

The princess worked hard to keep from giggling at the look of joy that passed over Twilight's face “So you’re going to teach me the spell Princess.”

“That’s correct my faithful student, I want you to learn the spell and use it on no less than two of you friends. I’ve found that it makes it easier to be prey for somepony after they’ve seen how much other ponies enjoy the feeling.”

It made sense to Twilight even if it was the last thing she had been expecting, not to mention she had no clue how to go about it. Still there was nothing for it but to learn the spell and try her best to make her princess proud.
At was looking to be a long week.

Author's Note

Here we go first chapter. For those of you wondering about the memory the Princess and Twilight watch don't worry that will be coming... maybe.

Also first attempt at a clop story... so here go's nothing.